Magazine > Faith

We are in a period of history never known before: a time in which the claim of Jesus has been removed from the world and must be proclaimed and defended as if it were the first time the Christian claim has been made in history
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"Broadly speaking, a griefer is an online version of the spoilsport — someone who takes pleasure in shattering the world of play itself... Griefing, as a term, dates to the late 1990s, when it was used to describe the willfully antisocial behaviors seen in early massively multiplayer games… No longer just an isolated pathology, griefing has developed a full-fledged culture… Amid the complex alchemy of seriousness and play that makes online games so uniquely compelling, the griefer is the one player whose fun depends on finding that elusive edge where online levity starts to take on real-life weight…"READ MORE >

Reviews > TV

Like cramming fistfuls of metaphysical crayons back into their tiny box, the Island on "Lost" can barely contain all the colorful epistemologies in its midst. It is a big stew of Philosophy 101's greatest hits... It's like the Monty Python sketch, "International Philosophy," in which Greek and German philosophers battle it out on the soccer field (Socrates's winning goal is contested by Hegel as not being an "a priori reality"). Back on "Lost" Philosophy Island, the implications are just as absurd: After all, if everything is imbued with meaning, then how meaningful is any one thing? READ MORE >

News > Issues

"…the SocGen drama encapsulates the contradictions of France's attitude to capitalism: on the one hand, there is widespread suspicion of the markets; on the other, world-class financial skills… In a 2006 poll, only 36% agreed that the free market was the best system available, compared with 71% of Americans and 66% of the British… This week, Mr Sarkozy once again declared: ‘We want a capitalism of entrepreneurs, not a capitalism of speculators.'" READ MORE >

News > Politics

"Fox News continues to embarrass itself with a type of journalism that nobody else in the industry would dare call professional… An all-out Fox News marketing blitz to label Giuliani ‘America's Mayor’ never got traction… In the meantime, the rise of Sen. John McCain and especially Mike Huckabee, with his populist streak, has caused all sorts of consternation at Fox News… And don't even mention Ron Paul's name to the folks at Fox News, who have stepped outside their role as journalists to try to kneecap the antiwar GOP candidate." READ MORE >

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"Archbishop Celli cautioned that ‘Catholic mass media cannot dispense with the ethical problem faced by all the media, because it is undeniable that everything that affects man as man should be a point of reference… they don't exist only for - or are directed only to - people who already belong to the Church, rather they should also give careful attention to what exists in the soul of man, in his heart, where sometimes there can be distance from God, or many times, a deep nostalgia for God.’ Our media, he summarized, ‘should search, and help in the search.’” READ MORE >

News > TV

"Dirty Jobs is an homage to George Plimpton, with a nod to Studs Terkel--an introduction, Rowe says, to the 'men and women who do the kinds of jobs that make civilized life possible for the rest of us.' Watching Rowe struggle with a forklift or wade through raw sewage is good, nasty fun. But for all the bathroom humor, his real curiosity about and respect for his subjects telegraphs a powerful message: There's dignity in hard work, expertise in unexpected places, and deep satisfaction in tackling and finishing a tough job."
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News > Culture

"We must openly address not only the drug issues plaguing the sports we love, but the culture of fear that shakes our society... We’re scared of failure, aging, vulnerability, leaving too soon, being passed up — and in the quest to conquer these fears, we are inspired by those who do whatever it takes to rise above and beat these odds. We call it 'drive' or 'ambition,' but when doing 'whatever it takes' leads us down the wrong road, it can erode our humanity. The game ends up playing us..."
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News > Science/Tech

“It could be the weirdest and most embarrassing prediction in the history of cosmology, if not science… If true, it would mean that you yourself reading this article are more likely to be some momentary fluctuation in a field of matter and energy out in space than a person with a real past born through billions of years of evolution in an orderly star-spangled cosmos… If you are inclined to skepticism this debate might seem like further evidence that cosmologists… have finally lost their minds.” READ MORE >

News > Issues

"Sixty one Italian scientists have signed a letter protesting against a planned visit this week by Pope Benedict XVI to Rome's Sapienza University because of his stated views on Galileo... Then Cardinal Ratzinger ... observed that 'At the time of Galileo the Church remained much more faithful to reason than Galileo himself. The process against Galileo was reasonable and just.' The Italian Catholic writer Vittorio Messori agreed, saying Galileo 'was not condemned for the things he said, but for the way he said them. He made statements with sectarian intolerance...'" READ MORE >

Opinion > TV

The Golden Globes awards were awarded last night, but without the usual glitzy televised gala, thanks to the Writer’s Guild strike. This prompts the question—how essential is the show anyway? Sure, we get to rubberneck on the red carpet thanks to first-hand reporting from second-hand personalities like Joan Rivers and that embarrassing… READ MORE >